The 2009 NBA Draft is on June 25th, an important day in so many ways. For one, it’s my birthday….the onset of my last year in my 20s…..but it’s also the day that the Wizards will be selecting Blake Griffin with the #1 overall draft pick (hopefully).

And while Griffin might not be a franchise changer like Tim Duncan, Yao Ming, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Shaq O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, he certainly isn’t a Kwame Brown or Michael Olowokandi.

Griffin won’t magically propel the Wizards to the cream of the crop, but he can certainly be a key cog on a potential contender while keeping the ‘Zards poised for the future.

June 25th is a pretty big date…potentially (Dikembe Mutombo will also turn 43 in beyond-human years on 6/25)….but May 19th is much more important. That’s when the order of the NBA is decided via a lottery.

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The Wizards were out of the game before it even started, and I really wish I had bet online. They came out lacking a ton of focus and turning the ball over….key ingredients to a disaster pie.

Cleveland was also aware of everything the Wiz wanted to do offensively before they did it. Javaris Crittenton would come down the court tapping his chin and Mo Williams would do the same. Guess the “intricate” offense (simplified for the youth, I know) of Ed Tapscott and Wes Unseld, Jr. won’t fool many.

To make matters worse, Washington was always a second behind on open passes, a telltale sign of the team going through the motions….a “we got this team in DC, so who cares about Cleveland?” type attitude.

Not to belittle the effort of some individuals, but as a team, it sucked a big one last night….what’s new? The game was no where close to the final 12 point margin.

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Ya’ll remember Brian Cardinal?

He was on the Wizards for all of 15 minutes (literally, he saw 15 total minutes of court time in a Wiz uniform)….scoring four points and pulling down five boards over five games. And that was the only action on the court he saw for the entire 2002-03 season.

The Wiz got him in September ’02 when Michael Jordan traded Rip Hamilton, Bobby Simmons, and Hubert Davis to the Pistons for Jerry Stackhouse, Ratko Varda, and Cardinal…..that really worked out. Nice move for the future MJ.

In the present day, people are all like, “Oh, Brian Cardinal looks like a dad,” or “Brian Cardinal looks like an abusive husband.”

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The passing of Kevin Duckworth at only 44 years old should serve as yet another cautionary tale for the health of all Americans. Medical examiners have concluded that Duckworth died of “hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with congestive heart failure.” The initial report from The Oregonian indicated that Duckworth appeared to have gone into cardiac arrest, according to fire rescue officials on the scene.

We are all aware of the weigh problems Duckworth dealt with throughout his career and more so into his retirement. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy involves the thickening of the heart muscle, thought to be primarily caused by genetics, but could be affected by non-genetic factors. There is no definitive connection between Duckworth’s heart problems and being overweight, but an easy conclusion to make would be that the latter certainly did not help the former, especially since his high blood pressure played a role in his heart failure.

Memories of Duckworth have focused on his positive contributions, especially those of his days with the Portland Trailblazers, the team he was most associated with. True Hoop’s Henry Abbott and Wayne Thompson of Blazers.com will recall his performance in a Portland game 7 win over the San Antonio Spurs in the 2nd round of the 1990 NBA Playoffs. Current Blazers team president, Larry Miller, remembers Duckworth “as one of the warmest and biggest- hearted.” Duckworth was in Lincoln City, OR to host a free clinic for kids.

My memories will, of course, stem from Duckworth’s days as a Bullet. While the on-court recollections weren’t always fond, I do remember the big fella having a smile on his face, for the most part.

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